Forget tattoos, belly button piercings and Lady Gaga-style silicone implants - the latest craze in body modification is 'corset piercing' where metal rings are pierced into the skin and joined together with a ribbon to give a corset effect.

The 'decoration', which can cost up to £300, can be applied to any area of the body where the skin is loose enough to pinch in order to thread a needle through. Popular areas include the back, ribs and, in some cases, even the throat.

But a cosmetic surgeon has now warned of the dangers of the bizarre trend which is sweeping the UK, saying the scarring following the procedure can be 'absolutely horrendous'.Some have endured an hour of pain to achieve the corset effect but it's only temporary - after a few weeks of wear they simply grow out, leaving scars in their place.

It appears to be the latest in the 'body modification' phenomenon, which has seen people going to extraordinary levels in a bid to stand out from the crowd.Today it's possible to be branded, scarred and even have silicone implanted under the skin to create bumps and 'horns'.

Eccentric popstar Lady Gaga is just one celebrity who's jumped on the bandwagon. She sported bizarre flesh-coloured 'horns' on her face during a television interview in February this year.

According to piercing experts, the 'corset' modification is growing in popularity as more and more brave the pain.But consultant plastic surgeon Kevin Hancock, a council member of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons who works at Spire Murrayfield Hospital, Merseyside, warned of the problems it can cause.

He said: 'I can't believe it's something that people would be attracted to.

'Any piercing, superficial or otherwise, produces a scar and different people scar in different ways.

'For some, the scarring may be slight but for others it can produce problems where the tissue overgrows and you end up with a red lump which is permanent.

'In some cases this can be absolutely horrendous.

'I have to say it seems absolutely barking to me. I was amazed when I saw pictures of this piercing - it would be extremely painful and it's only temporary.

'This is a row of rings which could also bleed and become infected. There is a risk of the rings pulling the skin and also becoming caught on something.'I can't believe that people are going out with these things on display - they're open to any sort of infection. It's verging on masochistic.

'It's just bizarre. I saw a picture of a girl who had the front of her chest done like this, that area is very prone to scarring. It's an awful thing to do.'

Laura Hunt offers corset piercing at her Tattoo and Piercing Studio, called Dragstrip, in Southampton, Hampshire, and charges £5 per hoop.

The 25-year-old, from Southampton, who has had the piercing herself, insisted it wasn't dangerous.She explained: 'Corset piercing is becoming more popular. Body modifications have recently become really popular as everyone wants to be different.

'It can be quite painful. It involves pinching the skin and pushing the needle through by hand.

'A lot of people know about it and would like to have it done but for some it can be too painful.

'It's not dangerous because it's a surface piercing and doesn't go deep enough.

'It's an open wound so it has to be cleaned to prevent infection - it's just like any other piercing.

'It only lasts for three to four weeks and after that it will just grow out. It does leave a few red scars.

'We get a lot of different people asking to have it done - one was a 45-year-old mum who wanted it done for a tattoo convention.

'We've also had a couple of students doing art degrees and others who are in to fetishes and pain. Others have it done because they want to look nice for a particular occasion.'

13-inch Tailed Man (Chandre Oram - India)With a 13-inch tail, Chandre Oram, a tea-estate worker, has become quite an object of devotion in his native Alipurduar, West Bengal and believes that Hanuman is manifest in him. "I was born on Ram Navami (birthday of Lord Ram). People have a lot of faith in me - they get cured of severe ailments when they touch my tail. I believe I can do a lot of good to those who come to me with devotion," says the man, before whom thousands of people queue up each day to seek blessings. In a corner of the courtyard of his home, Oram has set up a small Hanuman temple, where he receives offerings on Ram Navami, which he later offers to the deity.

However, because of the tail, Oram has found it difficult to get a bride. "Almost 20 women have turned down marriage proposals. They see me and agree to a match. But as soon as I turn around, they see my tail and leave. But I have decided I will marry the woman who accepts me and my tail. Or else, I'll remain a bachelor like Hanuman," he said.

Oram's family is proud of his tail and has turned down offers from doctors for its removal by surgery. "He will not survive without his tail. It has become part of his being, his existence," said Rekha, his sister. Doctors say that true tails are rare. But they are located in the coccygeal end of the vertebral column whereas Oram's tail shoots out from the lumbar region. "The coccyx is a vestige in humans and we stopped growing tails from that region a long time ago when we evolved from monkeys. Oram's case seems an aberration, an offshoot of a congenital defect," said eminent surgeon Dr B Ramana. The medical community reads the monkey man's case as a spina bifida -- a defect in the bone of the spine covered by a hole with lots of hair covering it. Nipple on the foot (unidentified 22-year-old woman - Brazil)The bizarre paper describing the case reads: "A 22-year-old woman sought medical care for a lesion in the plantar region of her left foot, a well-formed nipple surrounded by areola and hair. Microscopic examination of the dermis showed hair follicles, eccrine glands, and sebaceous glands. Fat tissue was noted at the base of the lesion. Clinical and histopathologic findings were consistent with the diagnosis of supernumerary breast tissue, also known as pseudomamma. To our knowledge, this is the first report of supernumerary breast tissue on the foot."World's Largest Hand (Lui Hua - China)Lui Hua suffers from a rare condition known as macrodactyly. When he was hospitalized in Shanghai on July 2007, his left thumb measured 10.2 inches and his index finger measured close to 12. On July 20 surgeons undertook a seven-hour operation to reduce the size of Liu's fingers and thumb. Doctors removed 11 pounds of flesh and bone in the procedure. A second surgery is scheduled to take place. Enlarged limbs can be caused by a number of medical conditions. Lymphedema is perhaps the most common cause and results in some extraordinarily enlarged limbs.Frog-like Baby (unidentified baby - Nepal)On 2006, this bizarre-looking baby was born in Charikot, the headquarters of Dolakha district, attracting a huge number of onlookers to witness the astonishing sight.

The neck-less baby with its head almost totally sunk into the upper part of the body and with extraordinarily large eyeballs literally popping out of the eye-sockets, was born to Nir Bahadur Karki and Suntali Karki at the Gaurishnkar Hospital in Charikot. The Karki couple is a permanent resident of Dolakha's Bhirkot VDC.

The bizarre baby, however, died after half an hour of its birth, Suntali, the mother, informed. It was taken to the hospital after its death. The news about such a baby being brought to the hospital spread like wildfire and there were hundreds gathered at the hospital to have a look. The police had to be deployed to control the crowd.

The baby weighed 2kg at birth and was born after the normal nine-month gestation period. Suntali, already a mother of two normal daughters, was not suffering from any illness during the pregnancy. Nir Bahadur, the father, says he does not feel any remorse for the newly-born baby's death. "I am happy that nothing happened to my wife," he said.

NOTE: Our readers, Becca and Andrew, report us that "the baby has a condition called anencephaly, a neural tube defect (like the cyclops baby), with no proper brain formation. The baby would have died a few days later. That's why women are advised to take folate in early pregnancy." --Thank you!Feet facing backwards (Wang Fang - China)Wang Fang, 27, of Chongqing city in China, was born with her feet facing the wrong way. She has learned to live with her condition without problems and recently refused a disability pension by being classified as disabled. "I can run faster than most of my friends and have a regular job as a waitress in the family restaurant. There is no reason to class me as disabled."

Cyclop Baby (unidentified baby - India)On 2006, this baby was born with a only one eye in India. Medical staff who helped deliver the child believe that the child's condition was caused by an experimental anti-cancer drug. Another cause written in the report by the hospital was that it could also be the result of a chromosomal disorder. The child was diagnosed with a rare chromosomal disorder, known as cyclopia. She was born with a single eye in the center of her forehead, no nose and her brain fused into a single hemisphere. With such severe deformities, it was a miracle that the girl survived even a few minutes after delivery. The baby died days later.Baby with Three Arms (Liu Junjie - China)

This 2-month-old baby named Liu Junjie from Anhui Province, China, was born with a third arm on 2006. Doctors successfully removed the extremely rare and well-developed third arm, but the baby required long-term physical therapy to gain function in his remaining hand, which has no palm and flexes in either direction. "We're hoping to exchange information with doctors who've dealt with similar cases anywhere in the world," said Chen, head of the orthopedics department at Shanghai Children's Medical Center. "This is so rare that we have virtually no information to go on."

As a result of the devastating tsunami in Japan March 11, 2011, on the land were dumped millions of inhabitants of the world's oceans. After the departure of large water local residents and rescue workers detectors dozens of unusual creatures, not previously encountered in this region. As explained to scientists investigating unusual remains, among the finds there are at least 7 copies of previously unknown ichthyology.

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